Weeping for Wonderland
by MissHikaHaru
Summary: Alice, at fourteen, finds life as a lady-in-training boring - what with all the lessons from her sister on becoming a lady to find a good husband. But what use are boys when there are so many fantasies to chase after? At least...until she finds someone who knows about the same magical place; Wonderland. And yet...there's more to him than meets the eye.


"Alice?"

I was humming to myself, my older sister's words just a whirlpool of misty breeze. I didn't hear anything she said, oblivious as the words crawled in through one ear and were jostled out of the other. The sky overhead was a clear crystalline blue, with clouds like large fluffy white rabbits bounding across it in the wind. My toe was tapping as I hummed, making up nonsense songs in my head.

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wa—"

"Alice!" Lorina interrupted in her usual voice of scorn, her contempt aided by the swift taunt of the book in her hands as she snapped it shut. I jumped, pulled quite suddenly from my dreamy state of mind.

"Yes?" I sat up quickly, crossing my legs beneath me and holding tight to my buckled shoes. I cast a guilty look at my sister, and she returned it with a shrewd expression.

"Stop dozing off," she said brusquely, "You know we can't afford a Governess; I have to teach you as best as I can, but you're making it very hard for me, little sister." I bowed my head, a few curls falling loose; Lorina tucked them back behind my ear with a sigh. "Alice, it's no use being like this." She put her fingers beneath my chin and raised my head. She was smiling in that sweet was she did when trying to give comfort. And I knew how hard it was for her these days. It didn't seem very long ago since it happened, but she'd had to take solace in tutoring me; her younger sister by seven years. "You and I both know that you need to—"

"To be raised well as a proper young lady," I said in a monotonous fashion, repeating the words I'd been told so many times before. "Yes, Lorina, I know. So I can grow up and be a good wife to a man one day…" I caught the look of pain on my sister's face, and began to reach out to her, before my little pet kitten Dinah yawned and jumped into my lap. "Oh! Hello, Dinah!" I tickled her ears, and she rubbed her furry head against my skirt. Lorina smiled at the sweet grey kitten, with Payne stripes and purple ribbon around her neck. "I'm glad you're awake now, too."

Dinah fixed me with her wide yellow eyes and purred, licking her velveteen paw. The two of us sisters watched the kitty for a while, hearing the birds twittering as they larked about on the branches of the high oak tree overhead. Eventually Lorina drew her eyes away, shaking her head quickly.

"Yes, well," she struggled a little to find her words, "That's exactly right, and now that you're fourteen it's high time you took these things seriously."

"Ah, but it's so boring!" I sighed, scooping Dinah into my arms and standing. "Can't you tell me a story instead? You know, the ones you always used to tell me when I was young; Alice's Adventures, in that silly little world where everything was all strange."

"Alice," Lorina said sternly, pulling apart the thick old book to the page it had previously assumed. "Your adventures in 'silly little Wonderland' can wait. I told you a story not too long ago. Just wait until next time."

"Oh, but it_ is_ next time!" I plead, clasping my hands together before my face. "_Please_, Lorina."

"Absolutely not." She was as stubborn as ever. "Now sit back down, and learn your Fordyce's!"

"I don't want to!"

"_Alice_."

"I said I don't want to, Lorina!"

"Alice!"

"Is that all you can ever say?" I cried, "Alice, this. Alice, that. It's so annoying! You're just like a bird that won't stop speaking the same word it's only just heard. Lorina, you're…" I remembered back to the day we went to the zoo with Mother and Father. "You _are_ a bird! You're a lori!"

"Alice, stop this at once!" she snapped, getting to her feet. "You're being so very childish! If you don't calm down I'm going to take you home and tell Mama and Papa what you've be saying."

"I don't care," I said, putting Dinah in the pocket of my bustle. I fixed my sister's angry blue eyes with my own. "Because where I'm going I'm treated like a Queen. I've even played croquet with one."

"Alice, what on Earth—"

"I'm going back to Wonderland!" I interrupted, before turning and racing towards the enormous oak tree.

"_Alice Kingsley_!"

I put my foot on a knot in the trunk and jumped, hoisting myself into the lower branches; Dinah gave a confused, and rather frightened, whimper.

"Sorry, Dinah," I said gently, as my movements sent a polar opposite effect of frenzy and strength. "I didn't mean to scare you. But I promise, when we're in Wonderland, you can have all the tea cakes you want! And an un-birthday present of Persian milk in a saucer, and—"

"Alice, you get back here, right _now_!" Lorina was struggling to climb after me, but with her tall woman's frame she just couldn't bend enough to manoeuvre the branches. "This is the last thing on Earth any man would want in a wife!" I laughed, not at all minding the dirt and bark to rub off on my dress, my petticoats, my hands, my face. My hair was already tangled – the way I liked it most – the clean brown curls now quite mussed. After all, what on Earth did I care what a boy thought of me? I wasn't going to marry _anyone_ I didn't want to. Because I was going to—"Wonderland isn't up that tree, Alice! Wonderland isn't _anywhere_!" I scowled, forcing my ears to block out her words as I scrabbled up and up and up. "_Wonderland does not exist_!"

"You're wrong!" I cried, but so did another voice. My heart skipped a beat, and I turned a terrified head to see a boy sitting not too far away on a branch. He looked up at me, fixing me with brown eyes with streaks of ember. They glittered almost like two beautiful flames out of his face. He cast me a devilish smile, winking. I was too shocked to respond.

"What do sisters know, right?" he asked me, his voice mellow and full of laughter. "She's your sister, I can tell," he continued, after I shot a look down through the tangle of leaves and wood; Lorina was completely gone from my sight. I smiled to myself, and at this the boy laughed. I turned my head up to him again. I saw that he was offering me his hand, which had rather finely-kept nails with almost pointed ends. "I'm Jab. What's your name, Wonderland Princess?"

"Alice," I replied, shaking his hand once, before I faltered. I looked at him quizzically. "What did you just call me?"

"You believe in Wonderland," he said simply, cocking his head of shiny black hair to one side. "I do too. You've played croquet with the Queen, haven't you?" he added in a hushed whisper, as if mentioning such things could warrant an execution; which, of course, it did. I giggled.

"Yes, I have," I conceded, shuffling along the branch to move closer to him. "But my flamingo wouldn't let himself hit the hedgehog; he didn't want his head cut off, you see. There's no way I could have beaten her." The boy's grin widened.

"I would win, fair and square," he said proudly, "And then I would be the one to say 'Off with her head!' and all the court of cards would bow down to me!" I moved a little further towards him.

"You're a brave one," I giggled, causing him to grin even wider.

"I'm the bravest of the brave!" the black-haired boy made his move towards me, now, before continuing in a conspiratorial manner, "She was going to make me the Knave of Hearts, but she didn't."

"Really?"

"I stole one of her tarts," he breathed, and I clapped a hand to my mouth in horror.

"You didn't!"

"Yes, I did!"

"Did it taste good?"

"Better than all the un-birthday cake in all of Wonderland!"

"It must have been a very narrow escape!" I was right opposite him now, the two of us perched on branches passing right by the other. His young face was handsome, filled with laughter and an awful lot of cheek. He was very much like me. I decided already that I rather liked this boy. I giggled, leaning a little forwards. "Wasn't she very angry?"

"Oh, she was furious!" he continued, smiling reminiscently as if remembering her booming voice that the two of us knew; _OFF WITH YOUR HEAD_! "In an absolute rage! It was so incredibly funny, you know; the dormouse woke up so quickly he fell into the teapot!" We both laughed at that. "The Hatter bit through his own teacup, and the leaves on all the talking flowers fell off!" I laughed even harder, just to imagine the Hatter's face when he saw his beloved tea flowing from the mouth-shaped hole in his cup and saucer.

"How dreadful!" I cried, though my maddened giggles made it more hilarious than it was shocking. "Did the Queen not order you to be executed? Weren't you terribly afraid? I would be."

"I wasn't scared at all!" he told me with that broad grin on his face, making the fire in his eyes dance. "She ordered every single deck of cards at her disposal to capture me, shouting 'If it isn't done in less than no time I'll have everybody executed all around!' It really was a brilliant escape, especially when I beat her on the head with my flamingo."

I howled with laughter, not quite sensing the kitten struggling around inside my pocket.

"Oh, stop it!" I giggled madly, "Y-You're pulling my leg!"

"No, I'm not," he said, pointing to the wriggling lump in my pocket. "Something else is doing that for me, Miss Alice." MY laughter faded, as I looked down to see Dinah poking her cotton-soft nose out of the folds of lace and white bows.

"Dinah!" I gasped, only just remembering. "Of course, I forgot I had you in there!" I giggled as I pulled her out and set the kitten on my lap. "Jab, this is Dinah, my cat." I smiled at her, before looking up at him. "She's my best friend in all the wor…what's wrong?" For Jab was all but cringing away, scowling down at the little kitty in my lap.

"I've always hated cats…" he said in a low, spitting voice. His narrowed eyes burned with anger.

"Oh, but Dinah's so lovely," I said gently, stroking her head; but now, for the first time in her life, she was hissing. Her hackles were raised, her little white teeth slightly bared; Jab hissed back, causing her to whimper and bury her face in my skirts. There was something odd about the way he made that noise. It sounded more like a snake, a reptile, than a cat. Maybe cats were scared of snakes?

"My twin brother, Vo, always used to play-fight with me," Jab continued, eyes still fixed on Dinah. "Since we were born, I suppose. He was always stronger than me, so he'd always leave me hurting, even though it was only pretend. He has a cat…a lot like yours. But this cat always seems to laugh at me, as if it knows how many times I've lost to Vo."

"You say you've been fighting for so long," I said quietly, casting a quick look at him up and down. He didn't seem more than a year or two older than myself. "But how old are you?"

"It depends," he replied, and I frowned. His roguish smile returned. "I'm a day older now than I was yesterday. Time does that, you see." It was my turn to grin now.

"Not in Wonderland," I correct him, matter-of-factly. "In Wonderland it's—"

"—always three o'clock," he finished. We were both silent for a moment, considering the other. Never before had I had such a queer, or such a wonderful, conversation before…and with a _boy_.

"You know," I said, smiling at him. "I quite like you." He returned my smile.

"I quite like you," he repeated, leaning a little towards me. His eyes flickered across my face, lingering for a moment on my own. "You're very pretty, Miss Alice."

"Thank you." My smile was more than a little shy now; I noticed his was too, causing mine to become even more so. Just then, Dinah raised her head again. Jab narrowed his eyes at her, baring his teeth a little in a snarl. Dinah leapt at him, yowling and extending claws. I was so startled I had barely opened my mouth to cry out before I was falling backwards from the branch.

"Miss Alice!" he shouted, launching himself down after me; throwing Dinah roughly aside without the slightest remorse. She clawed madly to the trunk and anchored herself with her claws, hissing and spitting as she watched the two of us falling through her large yellow eyes. Even though I was falling, I never seemed to hit anything. It was almost as if the branches and even the ground had heaved themselves away at the final split-second, and I was endlessly tumbling through nothingness, though I could see the light flooding away overhead.

Soon I was simply screaming in pitch black, the Earth swallowing the two of us whole; Jab was falling fast above me, silent but nonetheless as terrified as I. Strange lights began to illuminate the walls, if you could call the eternal tunnel of earth and roots around us walls. I saw that they were millions upon millions of fireflies, flitting their translucent wings and casting their candles on the odd assortment of objects floating and falling with us; a jar of orange marmalade almost cracked my head in two as it came soaring past, missing me by an inch. By some lurch of gravity I turned a flip, before the tunnel became horizontal, and I was truly flying sideways like a demented insect; as my skirts fanned out like the silken blue wings of a butterfly.

In a flurry of dust and hair I whipped my head back to see Jab's arm extended, his fingers reaching to their very extent towards me; I reached back my own for his. As terrifying as this seemed I almost knew what it meant. Because, for some reason, the two of us had found our way back to Wonderland; and…together. Almost as soon as this came to my mind I seemed to hit an invisible barrier, the breath knocked from within me with great pain, and the entire world seemed to slow; time itself was grinding to a halt. Very, very slowly everything was moving in its natural way, but myself and Jab continued to speed our way through the never-ending tunnel. We rocketed past a grandfather clock, and I saw that it was exactly three on the dot; a full teacup hit me square in the back of the head, sloshing piping hot tea into my hair and down my clothes in slow motion. It was quite disgusting.

Then something clicked, and everything was now in double-time, as _we_ became the slow part of this hectic world, the entire atmosphere around us continually speeding up and speeding up; birds in floating cages aged from chicks to wizened old feather-heaps; clock hands ticked repeatedly from three to one second past and back again in an eternal blur; we passed a window, embedded in the bedrock, and saw a sky within the centre of the Earth snowing before quickly being replaced by scorching sun. Soon it was only I that was slow in this surreal world of time and colour, and Jab's hand finally closed around mine. Everything went black, and the two of us were plunged into a freezing pool of water reaching to beyond the pitch horizon.


End file.
